Friday, September 05, 2014

Nissan Note Test Drive

I did drive the Note before. But since Nissan sent me another one. I thought, why not?
See what I think of it now.

I still really like the design. Which I think is so much nicer looking than the new 2015 Honda Fit abomination.

With "real" alloy wheels, it would even be better. Much better.

The interior is really roomy. And that's about all for the good news.
Otherwise, there is no soft plastic anywhere. Even on the door armrests.
The seating position is too high. Even in the lowest setting.

The stereo sounds pretty basic. (polite for "bad")

The engine is surprisingly quiet and smooth. Pretty much at al time.
Which is really nice.
That is until you try to push it. Then it gets quite noisy. With no result.
As the combination of "CVT and no power" pretty much dictates how fast you are going.

This is one of the only cars where I actually floored the accelerator to merge on the freeway.
With little result.

The ride is much firmer than I remember. (Almost too hard at times.)
Mileage is supposed to be 31/40.
I was able to squeeze about 27 around town, trying very, very hard. There is no way anyone is ever getting 31MPG.
But I was able to get at least 42 on the freeway.

The morel I test last year had a much nicer light colored interior.
Black isn't helping and makes the whole thing look even cheaper.

My test car was a bit over $17 000. Which actually seems expensive to me.
This should be the base model. ( I still had a few options) A car like this shouldn't be more than $13 000.
It is just too bad. It wouldn't take much to make the Note a much nicer car.
With the Cube gone soon, this is their main small hatchback offering.
A better engine and nicer interior bits would go a long way.
(A nicer interior is available in Europe. Also a glass roof option)

In case you were wondering, this is the interior of the 2015 model. (Not sure why Nissan still had a 2014 car to send me...)
The only change I see is the top of the console.
Not sure if the plastics are better or not...

They also have a new SR model. SR sounds sporty doesn't it?
Well, it's not. It uses the same CVT/engine combo.